Recent progress in the Lewis acid catalysis of organic reactions by ruthenium complexes. The review focuses on reactions in which coordinatively unsaturated ruthenium species function as conventional Lewis acids, rather than those involving oxidation or reduction, such as in hydrogenations. Particular emphasis is placed on the development of asymmetric catalysts.
INTRODUCTIONLewis acid catalysis continues to be of major utility in organic synthesis [1]. Recent interest in asymmetric catalysis [2,3], particularly for the formation of carbon-carbon bonds, has spurred continuing developments in chiral Lewis acid catalysts [4][5][6]. Classically, Lewis acid catalysts would have involved: main group elements, such as boron or aluminum; tin or zinc; early transition metals, such as titanium; or some lanthanides. Koga developed one of the earliest successful main group catalysts [7]. Yamamoto has been a major contributor to the development of chiral main group Lewis acid catalysts [1,8]. Organometallic Lewis acids of late transition metals have been extensively studied by Beck [9], but the potential for stoichiometric asymmetric reactions on coordinated ligands was largely developed by others, particularly with rhenium [10,11] and molybdenum reagents [12]. These studies of stoichiometric reactions provided valuable information regarding mechanistic aspects and control of nucleophilic attack on coordinated substrates. The lack of sensitivity to decomposition from moisture is a particular advantage of the late transition metal Lewis acids and the potential for straightforward elaboration of the chirality at the metal center via ligand variation has allowed the development of effective asymmetric catalysts based on these metals. Lewis-acid catalysts based on ruthenium have been particularly effective and recent developments on this area will be covered here. Since the mechanisms of a large number of reactions catalyzed by ruthenium complexes involve loss of a ligand to provide a site for coordination of a substrate, a large fraction of the reactions could be viewed as involving Lewis acids. Thus this overview could cover much of the material in a recent monograph [13] which included 383 pages dedicated to ruthenium in organic synthesis. Nevertheless, we will primarily focus on reactions that have been traditionally viewed as catalyzed by Lewis acids and only provide a brief discussion of reactions in which one would expect the oxidation state of the ruthenium to change during the catalytic cycle. Another specific review and more general reviews are also recommended [13][14][15][16].